The Morehead River Important Bird Area comprises a 1356 km² tract of

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

in the south-eastern

Cape York Peninsula The Cape York Peninsula is a peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth's last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupación Sierra Madre, ...

Far North Queensland Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns, Queensland, Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stret ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Description

The land is mainly

pastoral lease A pastoral lease, sometimes called a pastoral run, is an arrangement used in both Australia and New Zealand where government-owned Crown land is leased out to Pastoral farming, graziers for the purpose of livestock grazing on rangelands. Austral ...

used for extensive

cattle grazing Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, animal fiber, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, management, production, nutrition, selective breeding, and the raising ...

. It consists of low hills drained by

ephemeral Ephemerality (from the Greek word , meaning 'lasting only one day') is the concept of things being transitory, existing only briefly. Academically, the term ephemeral constitutionally describes a diverse assortment of things and experiences, fr ...

creeks and covered with open savanna woodland containing ''

Melaleuca ''Melaleuca'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles, bottlebrushes or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of '' Leptospermum''). They ...

s''. It also has narrow strips of riparian

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

adjoining

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...

s. It has a

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annu ...

tropical savanna climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry "winter") and ''As'' (for a dry "summer"). The driest month has less than ...

.BirdLife International. (2011). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Morehead River. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 17/08/2011.

Birds

The site has been identified by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) because it supports a large proportion of the population of the

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

golden-shouldered parrot, and possibly of the buff-breasted button-quail. It also contains significant populations of black-throated and

masked finch The masked finch (''Poephila personata'') is a small passerine bird in the estrildid finch family, Estrildidae. It is a common resident of dry savannah across northern Australia, from the Kimberley, across the Top End, the Gulf country and the s ...

es,

bush stone-curlew The bush stone-curlew or bush thick-knee (''Burhinus grallarius'', obsolete name ''Burhinus magnirostris'') is a large, ground-dwelling bird Endemism, endemic to Australia. Its favoured habitat is open plains and woodlands, where it stalks slowly ...

silver-crowned friarbird The silver-crowned friarbird (''Philemon argenticeps'') is a species of bird in the family Meliphagidae.It is endemic to northern Australia, including Queensland. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest A forest is ...

s, and yellow-tinted,

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In t ...

, banded, white-gaped and

bar-breasted honeyeater The bar-breasted honeyeater (''Ramsayornis fasciatus'') is a species of bird in the family Meliphagidae. It is endemic to northern Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia ...

s. During the wet season

azure kingfisher The azure kingfisher (''Ceyx azureus'') is a small kingfisher in the river kingfisher subfamily, Alcedininae.Pizzey, Graham and Doyle, Roy. (1980) ''A Field Guide to the Birds of Australia.'' Collins Publishers, Sydney. Description The azure ...

s occur along the streams with rainforest birds such as

fairy gerygone The fairy gerygone (''Gerygone palpebrosa''), previously known as the fairy warbler, is a species of bird in the family Acanthizidae native to New Guinea and Queensland. Taxonomy Alfred Russel Wallace described the species as ''Gerygone palpebro ...

s and

pied imperial-pigeon The pied imperial pigeon (''Ducula bicolor'') is a relatively large, pied species of pigeon. It is found in forest, woodland, mangrove, plantations and scrub in Southeast Asia, ranging from Myanmar and Thailand, throughout Indonesia and east to t ...

s. The wet grasslands are used by Latham's snipes on migration and by

brolga The brolga (''Antigone rubicunda''), formerly known as the native companion, is a bird in the crane (bird), crane family. It has also been given the name Australian crane, a term coined in 1865 by well-known ornithology, ornithologist John Gou ...

s for nesting. Black-breasted buzzards sometimes nest in the IBA and

red goshawk The red goshawk (''Erythrotriorchis radiatus'') is a bird of prey found in Australia. It is found mainly in the savanna woodlands of northern Australia, particularly near watercourses. It takes a broad range of live prey, mostly birds. Taxonomy ...

s have been recorded there.

References

Important Bird Areas of Queensland Geography of Far North Queensland {{FarNorthQueensland-geo-stub